Mystery Craft Kit: Home and Garden Welcome

Kits seem to be really hot these days. (Or have I just been living under a rock?) Scrapbook Update did a series on Kits, PaperCrafters Corner just did a WEEK on kits…and well, I’m obviously kit-deficient. So Nicole from Home and Garden Welcome offered to send me a kit and despite being a little nervous (my first kit- eek!) I decided to hop on the band wagon.

Your Home and Garden is where you make most of your memories. Let us help you create perfect patio or garden the to enjoy with your family and entertain your friends. Spend time with your kids feeding the fish in your garden pond during the day, then spend the evenings entertaining your friends around the barbecue grill. Once those memories are made, make sure you can keep them forever. Create a scrapbook albums or a piece of custom made art decor to remember those lazy afternoons and hazy summer evenings and all people who make them possible.

( I’m down with that!)

First I should mention that the Home and Garden Welcome kit was a….MYSTERY CRAFT KIT!!! So you have to have a lot of faith that Nicole will put cool things together for you and it will be well worth your $50.00 investment. Here’s how they are described on the site:

These kits contain coordinated supplies to spark your imagination. Each kit is valued over $100 MSRP and can include anything from papers, inks, ribbons, buttons, brads and other embellishments to challenge your creativity. Once you complete your project e-mail photos to MysteryKits@homeandgardenwelcome.com for your chance to win! Full contest details can be found on the Mystery Kit Contest Rules Page.

As the calendar changes from August to September the temperatures begin to cool and the trees begin to change. We transition from the hot days of summer to the cooler autumn. Bring together your friends and family and celebrate the comforts of home and the joy of a rustic life.

So… SPOILER ALERT..This is what I received in my September Mystery Kit:

What I got in my kit!

Here’s what I received:

1 pack of Graphic 45 12X12 paper (sheet music on one side, playing cards on the other)

Now, I’m going to take a moment to philosophize before I get started. I believe that there is very little randomness in the Universe…we get what we need when we need it…and sometimes you just have to trust. I was SO excited to get this package- it was JUST. FOR. ME. No, really, it was! As some of you know, I am a musician (lookee those papers) and I have roosters in my kitchen. Really. So I’m convinced that this kit was really just for me! Ok, now ON with it already…

The hutch in my kitchen- ROOSTERS. (Hey, my grandma had ‘em, too!)

So of course, considering my fondness of roosters and their presence in my kitchen, I decided to do something about this:

See that? A boring box of tissues. That just won’t do.

So I decided to prime a paper-mache tissue box cover I had in my stash. (Like you do.) And then I painted it with some antique white Martha Stewart Craft Paint.

Priming the paper mache box with Gesso first evens out the surface and primes it, making it necessary to use only 1 coat of paint.

Then I measured the sides of the box and top, and cut some of that pretty Graphic 45 paper to fit just inside, leaving a little boarder all around. I decoupaged the paper on using Mod Podge, and then I gave it a little spritz of the Perfect Pearls Mist just to add a bit of color. You can mix the Perfect Pearls Mist right into the Mod Podge for instant antiquing!

Here you can see the color variation due to the Perfect Pearls mists.

To create the top, I cut a square of paper and decoupaged it on the same way I did the sides. (Covering the hole.) When it was dry, I used a craft knife to cut across the hole, making little tabs. Then I glued those down, like this:

The view from inside the box.

When it was dry, I stamped the laurel leaves right to the top of the box using Perfect Medium. I heat-embossed it with some black embossing powder to bring that black accent color more prominently to the top.

Top of Tissue Box

Next I added the lace trim using a hot glue gun, and then topped THAT with the text ribbon trim. I think it kind of makes it look like there is a lid.

To create the focal images, I used my Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities Book Pages die and cut 4 pieces of black cardstock. I stamped my Roosters using the Perfect Medium, then dusted the Perfect Pearls in on top.

I LOVE the way the Perfect Pearls look on the black cardstock… and I’m SO glad they were in the kit! Just what I would have wanted to use anyway!

I ended up cutting 4 pieces of cardstock and then flipped one over so that I got that fancy detail on both the top and the bottom- you can see the seam, but I’m OK with that. I adhered the images to the tissue box with a tape runner. I then added some of those Crystal Stickers on top as little embellishments.

Side “A.”

Side “B.”

So now I have a sweet and coordinated tissue box to fit into my kitchen’s decor….see?

Bless you!

So…one last thing about the Mystery Kits- if you choose to participate, there is a CONTEST! Here are some of the deets on that:

Every month Home and Garden Welcome will have a ‘Mystery Kit’ available for purchase. The kits will be $50 each month and will include a selection of products for you to create a one of a kind piece of art. Each month the kit will be a little different, including a different mix of papers, inks, paints, embellishments and accessories. You won’t know what is included in the kit until it arrives! There will be a product description giving a small hint regarding the contents of the kit as well as any recommended tools or products necessary for the kit contents.

To participate in the Mystery Kit Contest you must purchase the Current Month’s Kit AND you must use ALL the items in the kit prominently in your final project. E-mail photos of your project to mysterykitcontest@homeandgardenwelcome.com before Midnight EST the last day of the contest month. Once all projects are received I will post them on this page for you to vote for your favorite project..

Voting will continue for 7 days and the project with the most votes will win a free Mystery Kit Gift Certificate redeemable for a mystery kit of their choice – future, past or present!

As you can see, there are lots of great items to work with….but I just wasn’t able to figure out how to use them all in the project I wanted to make. (I underlined the products I used in the list above.) So obviously I wouldn’t be able to enter the contest. But what about you? Could you stretch your creativity to the limit and use ALL the items?

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All images and tutorials on this blog are copyrighted material. Please contact me if you would like to borrow any media (photos, video or audio files), tutorials, or ideas from this blog. 99% of the time I would be happy to allow you to use one photo with appropriate credit and link back to CraftTestDummies.com (preferably to the same post it was borrowed from.) I can be contacted via email: crafttherapy (at) gmail (dot) com.